For the Adherent of Pop Culture
Adventures of Jack Burton ] Back to the Future ] Battlestar Galactica ] Buckaroo Banzai ] Cliffhangers! ] Earth 2 ] The Expendables ] Firefly/Serenity ] The Fly ] Galaxy Quest ] Indiana Jones ] Jurassic Park ] Land of the Lost ] Lost in Space ] The Matrix ] The Mummy/The Scorpion King ] The Prisoner ] Sapphire & Steel ] Snake Plissken Chronicles ] Star Trek ] Terminator ] The Thing ] Total Recall ] Tron ] Twin Peaks ] UFO ] V the series ] Valley of the Dinosaurs ] Waterworld ] PopApostle Home ] Links ] Privacy ]


Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Twin Peaks: There's Some Fear in Letting Go Twin Peaks
"There's Some Fear in Letting Go"
Season Three, Part 15
Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Directed by David Lynch
Original air date: August 20, 2017

 

Big Ed finds himself free; Mr. C talks to Phillip Jeffries; Dougie-Cooper comes to a shocking realization; Hawk receives a final message.

 

Read the episode summary at the Twin Peaks wiki

 

Didja Know?

 

In the end credits, this episode is dedicated to the memory of Margaret Lanterman. Margaret Lanterman is the fictional Log Lady of Twin Peaks, portrayed by actress Catherine Coulson; the character dies in this episode. Part 1: "My Log Has a Message for You" was dedicated to Catherine Coulson.

 

The actress who portrays Ruby in this episode also voices the characters called the Ruby Gems in the animated TV series Steven Universe.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Nadine Hurley

Big Ed

Lawrence Jacoby (mentioned only)

Norma Jennings

Shelly Briggs

Walter Lawford

Mr. C

woodsmen

Phillip Jeffries

Jumping Man

bosomy woman (at Dutchman's Lodge)

Judy (mentioned only)

Richard Horne

Audrey Horne

Cyril Pons

Steven Burnett (possibly dies in this episode)

Gersten Hayward

Becky Burnett (mentioned only)

Carl Rodd

Roadhouse MC

Renee

Chuck

Skipper

James Hurley

Freddie Sykes

Agent Randall Headley

Agent Wilson

Douglas Jones

Jane Jones

Douglas and Jane Jones children

Duncan Todd

Roger

Anthony Sinclair (mentioned only)

Chantal

drunk

Deputy Chad Broxford

Deputy Bobby Briggs

Deputy Chief Hawk

Naido

Hutch

Agent Cooper

Janey-E Jones

Gordon Cole

Sonny-Jim Jones

Log Lady (dies in this episode)

Lucy Brennan

Sheriff Frank Truman

Deputy Andy Brennan

Charlie

Billy (mentioned only)

Ruby 

 


 

Didja Notice?

 

At 1:59 on the Blu-ray, Nadine walks past Todd's Towing. There is also an Atlas Van Lines moving company trailer parked behind a wood fence.

 

    At 2:17 on the Blu-ray, we see that Nadine is walking along Interstate 90. This is a real world interstate in Washington, but it is nowhere near the area where Twin Peaks is located in the series.

    In this shot, the cars are driving on the wrong side of the highway (although just seconds earlier, we see a shot that shows a car pull out of a business driveway and turn into the correct lane)! Why should this be? Is there some meaning here? That the world is starting to go off-course as we get closer to Cooper's changing of the timeline in Part 17: "The Past Dictates the Future"?

 

    At 2:20 on the Blu-ray, Nadine walks up to Big Ed's Gas Farm, passing Alpine Fitness. Alpine Fitness is an actual business in North Bend, WA right next to Transmissions Plus Inc., the shooting location of the Gas Farm at 1130 E North Bend Way, North Bend, WA. Notice that the sign for Transmissions Plus Inc. is prominently visible as Nadine walks up, while the "Big Ed's Gas Farm" sign is also on the roof of the establishment.

    A NAPA auto parts store is located on the other side of the Gas Farm. 

 

At 5:29 on the Blu-ray, we see that the cross street next to the RR Diner is Bendigo Blvd. The real world diner that acts as the RR in the series (Twede's Cafe) is located at E. North Bend Way and Bendigo Blvd. in North Bend. According to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town, the RR is located at Falls Avenue and Main Street in Twin Peaks.

 

Big Ed's pick-up truck is a 1962 Chevrolet C-10 with Washington license plate NIP 633. The truck is presumably meant to be the same one he drove in the original series 25 years ago, though it now has a new paint job and no longer has "Big Ed's Gas Farm" on the doors.

 

The cash register inside the RR has a sticker on it indicating they accept American Express, Discover, Visa, and Master Card credit cards, all real world credit cards.

 

The song that plays throughout the RR scene as Ed goes to Norma is "I've Been Loving You Too Long" by Otis Redding from 1965.

 

As Ed enters the RR at 5:47 on the Blu-ray, the insurance business across the street displays the Farmers Insurance Group logo.

 

Walter indicates that Norma had told him she had no family. But, what about Annie? According to The Final Dossier, Annie still lives, though largely catatonic and confined to a psychiatric hospital in Spokane.

 

After sitting down at the counter to struggle with his initial moments of depression when Norma seems to have blown him off to meet with Walter, Ed appears to actively calm himself, closing his eyes and possibly entering a mild meditative state. David Lynch is firm believer in the positive power of meditation himself; this scene may be suggesting that Ed helped to bring about the happy ending with Norma seen minutes later...he asks her to marry him and she instantly agrees. In the "shared dream" theory, this might also be a hint of Ed influencing the dream to finally work out the love he and Norma have had for each other since high school.

 

At 9:40 on the Blu-ray, Shelly is holding a Citavo coffee urn at the RR. A Jubilee hot chocolate dispenser is seen next to her. These are both real world brands, largely catering to restaurants. 

 

In the room above the convenience store, a woodsman sits next to an electronic device that may be an old-time radio/turntable; an LP record can be seen sitting on a turntable inside it when the woodsman throws a lever that makes electricity flash. Next to the radio/turntable, another, possibly older, device made of wood with ropes or cables hanging down from inside it is seen.
Room above convenience store woodsman jukebox
Devices in room above the convenience store (brightness and color highly corrected to make items visible) Woodsman radio/turntable showing turntable

 

The (or a) Jumping Man with the white mask is seen in flashes when the woodsman throws his lever on the radio/turntable. The Jumping Man was previously seen above the convenience store in Fire Walk with Me and Missing Pieces. Although, in this case, the man does not appear to be wearing a mask, but has his face painted white and an extension on his nose (possibly CGI).
Jumping Man Jumping Man
Jumping Man in Fire Walk with Me Jumping Man in this episode

 

As a woodman leads Mr. C through a hallway in the otherworldly location, an image of the woods is superimposed over the scene as they walk, suggesting they are walking through the woods at the same time as walking through the hall. 

 

If looks as if the woodsman leading Mr. C through the hall is the same one who killed Hastings in Buckhorn in Part 11: "There's Fire Where You Are Going".
hallway woodsman Buckhorn woodsman
Hallway woodsman Buckhorn woodsman in Part 11: "There's Fire Where You Are Going"

 

The motel where Mr. C visits Phillip Jeffries must the Dutchman's Lodge, where Ray Monroe told him Jeffries was hiding. The Lodge is described by Agent Preston in The Final Dossier, where she said the actual lodge was torn down in 1965. Is the Dutchman's in which Jeffries is hiding then just a supernatural version of the lodge? Or does the convenience store allow people to travel through time, allowing Jeffries and Mr. C to visit the location when it was still standing? The exteriors of the lodge were shot at the Mt. Si Motel at 43200 SE North Bend Way, North Bend, Washington, the same motel used as the Red Diamond City Motel in Fire Walk with Me.

 

Jeffries is staying in room 8 at the lodge.

 

The woman who lets Mr. C into Jeffries' motel room is referred to in the end credits as "bosomy woman". But the woman we see does not appear to be particularly bosomy. In profile, she also appears to have an Adam's apple, indicating she is actually a man. The role was played by a male actor, Malachy Sreenan.

Adam's apple

 

Inside room 8, the back wall with a radiator on it seems to slide aside to reveal an older, more solid-looking room where Jeffries' machine is located. When the fluorescent light in the motel room flickers, a faint image of the radiator can be seen, as if the wall is actually still there and Mr. C is just seeing (and hearing) through it.

 

Phillip Jeffries appears to be housed inside a steam- or smoke-emitting machine in room 8. Is his body inside it? Or just his spirit?

 

    Mr. C asks Jeffries if he called him "five days ago." This would be in reference to the call seen in Part 2: "The Stars Turn and a Time Presents Itself" which would have been at least six days ago. Another distortion in the timeline? Jeffries claims he did not call Mr. C and has not spoken to him in many, many years. If this is the truth, who did call Mr. C posing as Jeffries? Is there a Jeffries doppelganger or tulpa running around? We never learn the identity of the person who made the call.

 

The flashback scenes of Jeffries during his conversation with Mr. C are from Fire Walk with Me. Here, Mr. C remarks that he last met Jeffries in 1989, but the scene took place in 1988 in the film. The original script of Fire Walk with Me has the scene set in 1989, but the year was changed during filming. The 1989 year mentioned here seems to be a mistake by Frost and Lynch.

 

Jeffries gives Mr. C coordinates where he can meet Judy, 48° 55' 14". These coordinates are in the approximate region where Twin Peaks is located. Jeffries claims that Mr. C has already met Judy; this may suggest that Sarah Palmer is Judy, as hinted at in a few past episodes.

 

    The man from Fat Trout Trailer Park who is walking his dog in the woods when he comes upon Steven Burnett and Gersten Hayward is Cyril Pons, the reporter who appeared in TV broadcasts in Episode 0A: "Wrapped in Plastic" and Episode 8A: "May the Giant Be With You" and wrote articles for the Twin Peaks Post seen in The Secret History of Twin Peaks. He is portrayed by Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost. In the book Conversations With Mark Frost by David Bushman, Frost says the name "Cyril Pons" is named after the Sherlock Holmes pastiche character Solar Pons created by author August Derleth.

    Cyril's coat appears to have Native American graphic images on it. They are vaguely reminiscent of the symbols associated with Owl Cave. Many characters were seen to wear sweaters with similar motifs in the original series, as detailed PopApostle's studies.

Cyril Pons' coat

 

    Steven's dialog with Gersten in which he is contemplating suicide seems to suggest that he shot and killed his wife, Becky. However, Mark Frost has stated that Steven did not kill Becky. Still, saying he "did not kill Becky" is not the same as saying he did not shoot her. It's also possible that Becky shot and killed herself and Steven, in his drug-addled state, only thinks he did the deed. Becky is not seen or mentioned after this, so we don't know her fate.

    Steven asks Gersten, "Are you gonna come up with me?" to which she responds, "No, and you're not going either." Steven seems to be asking if she's going to kill herself as well if he does himself in.

    A gunshot is later heard by Gersten in the woods, implying that Steven has shot himself. 

 

At 25:34 on the Blu-ray, Gersten's shirt is unbuttoned more than halfway down, enough to give revealing glimpses of her bra and breasts. But when she runs to the other side of the tree when Cyril Pons comes across them on his walk, her shirt suddenly seen to be buttoned up almost to the top.

 

At 29:14 on the Blu-ray, Gersten is seen to wear a necklace with a large, old-fashioned key on it. Is it a real key that opens something? Or just a charm?

 

At 30:36 on the Blu-ray, we see the Burnetts' mobile home with a broken window and cardboard covering it up from the inside. The window was broken when a red mug was thrown through it from inside in Part 10: "Laura is the One".

 

At 30:40 on the Blu-ray, we see a full shot of the front of the Burnetts' mobile home, with a small sign of a man-shaped shooting target on it reading "Nothing inside worth dying for". This is a real world sign available for purchase at numerous online outlets.

 

As the MC at the Roadhouse turns up the "volume dial" sign on stage during the start of "Sharp-Dressed Man", the volume of the music actually does go up. "Sharp-Dressed Man" is a 1983 song by ZZ Top.

 

At 31:29 on the Blu-ray, a neon sign for Wendt's Beer is seen in the Roadhouse. Wendt's Beer appears to be a fictitious brand, possibly inspired by actor George Wendt's character Norm Peterson, who loved beer, from the 1982-1993 sitcom Cheers.

 

A Rainier Beer can is seen in front of one of Renee and Chuck's guests in the Roadhouse.

 

At 32:01 on the Blu-ray, a fireplace is seen in the Roadhouse.

 

After Chuck and his friend (identified as Skipper in the end credits) begin punching and kicking James, Freddie punches each of them once with his green-gloved hand and the ZZ Top song playing seems to skip in its track each time, as if Freddie's punches resulted in shockwaves that effected the turntable.

 

After Freddie punches Chuck and Skipper, James realizes the two men are seriously hurt and yells for someone to call 911. 911 is the emergency phone number throughout most of North America.   

 

    When Agent Headley looks in on the wrong Douglas Jones family that has been brought in to the Las Vegas FBI office at 33:47 on the Blu-ray, notice that the young daughter in bunny slippers is holding her hands together in an upside-down triangle shape over her stomach and has her eyes closed as if in prayer or meditation.

    An inverted triangle with a Y-shape connecting the three points is an ancient German symbol called the Dragon's Eye, symbolizing the choice of good and evil.

    What is the meaning of the girl's gesture here? 

wrong Jones family

 

At 38:57 on the Blu-ray, Dougie-Cooper moves the salt and pepper shakers on the dining room table away from each other. The shakers are vaguely owl-shaped, possibly one of the reasons he moves them apart.

 

The old movie that comes on the TV when Dougie-Cooper presses the power button on the remote is the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, which features an unseen character named Gordon Cole as a Hollywood studio executive. The film was the inspiration for the name of FBI Director Gordon Cole on Twin Peaks.

 

The Log Lady tells Hawk her log is turning gold. What does she mean? She is about to die of cancer at this time. Gold is theorized to come from the death of a star, producing the element gold. Is her log about to die along with her? Is there some connection to a star in all this?

 

Just before Hawk's announcement that the Log Lady has died, Frank seems to be looking at images of fish on his laptop in the conference room with the lights low. Why is Frank sitting there with his laptop instead of in his office? Why is he looking at images of fish in low light? It's possible it relates to Lynch's 2006 book on transcendental meditation, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity where he remarks: "Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful." Was Frank in the darkened room meditating in his own way?

 

Hawk gathers only a few people at the sheriff's station to inform them that the Log Lady passed away this night, Sheriff Frank Truman, Deputy Bobby Briggs, Deputy Andy Brennan, and Receptionist Lucy Brennan. Are these the people at the station who were closest to her? There is no real indication that any of them besides Hawk himself were close to her. It is particularly interesting to note the presence of Bobby; did he have a connection to the Log Lady we haven't seen? It's interesting to note how they all react to the news: Lucy sheds tears, Andy places comforting hands on Lucy's shoulders, Bobby shoves his hands into his pockets, and Sheriff Truman removes his hat. Hawk simply bows his head in respect for the Log Lady and his friends' reactions to her passing.

 

At 47:30, the lights fade out in the Log Lady's cabin, seemingly after her death there.

 

Audrey seems to constantly delay what she wants to have happen by complaining that Charlie is not taking action or is complaining. It is really Audrey who has a problem, not Charlie, despite her protests to the contrary.

 

The song that the band plays at the Roadhouse at the end of the episode is "Axolotl" (2016) by The Veils. The keyboardist of The Veils plays Roland keyboards and the band has a Vox amplifier on stage.

 

The Asian girl sitting alone in a booth in the Roadhouse is identified as Ruby in the end credits.

 

    The burly men who remove Ruby from her booth both hold cans of Rainier Beer. The men seem to realize that she is on drugs when she says she is waiting for someone, so they silently agree to remove her. Ruby doesn't even really seem to acknowledge that she has been removed from her booth. Or is she feeling so humiliated by the men's action that is holding in all reaction? Finally, she just begins crawling into the crowded dance floor on all fours, shaking a bit as if she may be crying, then she starts screaming. Are they screams of a drug-addled fit or screams of pent-up outrage and frustration?

    Though the faces of the crowd are not seen, it seems as if they are paying no attention to Ruby as she crawls through them and starts to scream. 

 

As the closing credits roll, we are shown a view of the Dutchman's Lodge. Then, during the last 10 seconds of the credits, the angle shifts (possibly towards our previous vantage point) and we the "bosomy woman" looking back at us from under the motel overhang.

 

Unanswered Questions

 

What did Steven do that makes him contemplate suicide? Did he shoot Becky? Or was it something else?

 

Memorable Dialog

 

I've been a selfish bitch.mp3

I'm fine now.mp3

I'm shoveling myself out of the shit.mp3

Ed, you are free.mp3

cup of coffee and a cyanide tablet.mp3

oh, it's you.mp3

who is Judy?.mp3

you've already met Judy.mp3

shut up, Chad.mp3

get Gordon Cole.mp3

I'm dying.mp3

just a change.mp3

some fear in letting go.mp3

you know what I mean.mp3

the one under the Moon.mp3

my log is turning gold.mp3

good bye, Margaret.mp3

 

Back to Twin Peaks Episode Studies